Dory's Avengers (36 page)

As her father drove off, Catherine was already ringing the doorbell of the St Benedict residence. Like her father, she was very nervous about the meeting to come with Theo, and she acted before her nerve could fail her. The staff were surprised to hear the doorbell; no guests were expected and impromptu visits were a rarity. Thinking she'd have to tell a group of Jehovah's Witnesses that Lord William wasn't seeking salvation, Mrs White was surprised to find Catherine Lorimer standing nervously on the doorstep.

‘Come in, dear,' said the kindly Mrs White, ushering the trembling girl through the door and smiling to put her at ease.

‘May I see Lord Theodore, please?' stammered Catherine. Before Mrs White could reply, Brian Mooreland appeared on the stairs to find out who was calling so unexpectedly.

‘This is most irregular,' he growled. ‘I'll have to speak to His Lordship.' Leaving Catherine with Mrs White, Mooreland went back up the stairs. Seeing the girl physically shaking with fear, Mrs White led her into the warmth of the kitchen and made her a cup of tea.

‘Tea, Miss Lorimer,' said Mrs White, setting a steaming mug and a plate of biscuits in front of Catherine. ‘The answer to everything.' Catherine found herself relaxing in Mrs White's friendly company, but that didn't stop her jumping violently when the door opened about ten minutes later. Bracing herself to be escorted from the premises by an angry Mooreland, Catherine's relief at seeing Theo enter the room was palpable.

‘Cathie my sweet,' said Theo, pulling her into his arms and kissing her. ‘How happy am I to see you – this is the best surprise ever.'

‘Theo, I really need to talk to you,' said Catherine before her nerve failed. ‘Important stuff…'

‘Why don't you take the young lady upstairs, Lord
Theodore?' said Mrs White, smiling at the budding love between the youngsters.

‘Good idea, Mrs White,' said Theo, and Catherine added, ‘Thank you for the tea, Mrs White.'

Taking Catherine's hand, Theo led her up the stairs. She just had time to whisper ‘Theo, I need us to talk in private…' before Lord William appeared in their path.

‘Ah, love's young dream,' he bellowed, causing Catherine to jump violently again and Theo to squeeze her hand reassuringly. ‘Can't get enough of each other, eh?' Knowing exactly how to work his father, Theo winked and grinned.

‘That's right, Your Lordship. I was just going to take Cathie…um…you know…'

‘You devil, Theodore. Don't let him take advantage of you, young Catherine,' said Lord William, chuckling. ‘Off you go, now. I'm sure you're anxious to be alone.' Still chuckling at the transparency of his red-blooded son, Lord William disappeared into the drawing room. Without speaking, Theo smiled reassuringly at Catherine and continued to lead her up the stairs. Catherine looked around her in surprise as they reached the bare floorboards of the fourth floor and the faded luxury of Theo's room.

‘This is my room,' said Theo. ‘I'm sorry that it doesn't quite measure up to the opulence of the rest of the house, but we'll be alone here.' Seeing Cathie still hovering nervously by the door, Theo added, ‘It's OK, I won't take advantage of you.'

‘It's not you, Theo; it's…that.' Following Cathie's horrified glance, Theo looked up at his redundant security camera and smiled.

‘Don't worry about that, Cathie; it's off…'

‘I
do
worry, Theo, and that's just given me yet another question.' Cathie continued to hover by Theo's door, clasping and unclasping her hands nervously as Theo
looked at her from his big, old four-poster bed. Sighing, she told him about her conversation with her father.

‘He doesn't want me to see you any more, Theo,' she finished miserably. ‘He…'

Stopping abruptly as Theo held up a hand, she watched in confusion as he crossed over to the door, opened it and checked that the hallway was deserted. He then turned to Cathie and said in a low voice, ‘Cathie, please come and sit on the bed. I promise I won't take advantage of you; I won't even touch you if you don't want me to, but we'll be more private talking there. Walls have ears in this house!'

Cathie allowed herself to be led over to the bed by Theo, still longing for him with every fibre of her being but also fearfully mistrustful.

‘OK,' she continued when they'd sat down, taking her lead from Theo and speaking quietly. ‘My dad doesn't want me seeing you anymore. He doesn't believe that you had a breakdown. He doesn't believe that you're agoraphobic. He thinks something sinister's going on here and he doesn't want me involved…'

‘What do you believe, Cathie?' Cathie was silent for a while, and it was Theo who continued. ‘You think the same, don't you?' he said, frowning.

‘My dad said you're probably just chatting me up so that Lord William can have regular contact with him. You know, Dad being the head of Europe Logistics UK and not being Sponsored…'

‘And you think the same? Your father's a shrewd man.'

‘So it's true?'

‘It's true that Lord William asked me to forge a relationship with you for the reasons outlined by your father. It's not true that those were
my
reasons though.'

‘What were your reasons then, Theo? And why do you really call your father, ‘‘Your Lordship''? I don't buy the family joke excuse anymore.'

Theo leant his elbows on his knees and cupped his chin in his hands. Without looking at Cathie, he said, ‘Brace yourself, Cathie. If you want the truth, then I will tell you the truth; but it's grim. Very grim.

‘I call…him… Lordship because I will never call him ‘‘Father''. Cathie, I hate him. I hate him more and more with every breath I take. Your father's right; Lord William St Benedict is evil. Please believe me when I say I would never do anything to help His Lordship or his Scheme.'

Sighing, Theo carried on.

‘You're quite right – I never had a breakdown. I was imprisoned in this room from the age of thirteen until quite recently. Hence the security camera. My crime? I spoke my mind about the Scheme. I told him I thought it cruel and oppressive, and I told him I believed he was responsible for my mother's disappearance. I know for a fact he was responsible for the death of my uncle…' Cathie gasped in horror at Theo's words.

‘How do you know these things?' she asked.

‘My father's office is directly below us. I can hear everything he and his cronies say.'

‘Isn't he afraid you'll tell someone?'

‘He limits my contact with the outside world. Look.' Lifting his trouser leg, Theo showed Cathie the security bracelet on his ankle. ‘I'm not agoraphobic, Cathie; God, how I'd love to spend my life outdoors after being stuck in this room for so long, but alarms would go off all over London if I were to pass the threshold of this house.'

‘So, you've not been out of this house in nearly ten years?'

‘That's right, Cathie. Until recently, I hadn't even left this rotting bedroom. I'm not sure what mellowed…him…on that one. Remarkably, I think he actually enjoys my company. I argue with him; no one else does. No one else dares; actually, I think they're the sensible ones.'

‘My father thinks Lord William's got a fearful temper.
Dad said His Lordship got a call yesterday which made him look…well, Dad said Lord William had the devil's own eyes…'

Theo laughed a little at Philip Lorimer's choice of expression. ‘Again your father's proved himself a very shrewd man, Cathie. His Lordshit has a violent temper. I should know.'

‘His Lordshit?'

‘Oh yes, I'll come to that one…'

‘From what you're telling me, Theo, it suits him. I hardly want to ask, but how should you know? About His Lordshit's violent temper, I mean.'

Liking the fact that Cathie had slipped so easily into using the Dory's Avengers name for Lord William, but dreading exposing her to the grim truths about his torture, Theo hesitated for a few moments.

‘Don't be alarmed, I'm not about to pounce on you. I just need to show you something.' Pulling the curtains shut around the bed, Theo removed his shirt. Cathie had a moment to admire his body, nicely toned now thanks to Theo's freedom to use the household gym, before Theo lay on his belly and showed her his back. He heard her gasp in shock, then her fingers started to trace the scars on his back, left there permanently from the whippings he'd endured. Finally, she lay down beside him on the bed, and held him as they resumed their conversation.

‘Your father does that to you?'

‘Not personally, no,' said Theo, snuggling up to Cathie. ‘His Lordshit doesn't like to get his hands dirty. He has his thugs do it…'

‘Do what?'

‘They whip me, Cathie. They flog me, often until I pass out with the pain. His Lordshit watches. Sometimes my sister watches too…'

‘Marina?'

‘No, darling. The other sister. Lady Bitch Rosanna. His Lordshit forced Marina to watch once; God, I wish I could have protected her from it all…'

For a while, the awful truth of his life overwhelmed Theo and he lay in Cathie's arms, breathing heavily. Eventually, Cathie broke the silence.

‘How did you stay sane, Theo? I think I'd have gone mad after the first week…'

‘Now, this bit is going to sound a bit mad, Cathie. Just bear with me. I've learned to go off in my mind, to a place I loved as a child. When I was young, we often used to visit my mother's family; they lived in a Lake District village called Applethwaite. To me, it's the best place in the world. They were happy times, and that's where I pretend I am when things get too much. My mother was the exact opposite of…him. She was kind, gentle, loving, caring. It didn't matter to her if someone was rich or poor, Sponsored or Unsponsored; she go out of her way to spread happiness…'

‘You must miss her a lot!'

‘I miss her every second of every day,' Theo said, turning away as tears blurred his vision.

‘He hated it,' Theo continued finally, his voice hard and bitter all of a sudden as his father came back into the narrative. ‘It went against everything he believed in to have a wife who united everyone even as he was trying to divide them. Gradually he put more and more limitations on her freedom, stopped us going to Applethwaite, stifled her compassion.

‘And then she disappeared. Gone. Vanished off the face of the Earth. No one knows where. No one dared to ask, except for gormless gobshite Theodore! I couldn't let it go without challenging him; unfortunately I've inherited some of his temper. I was only thirteen, Cathie, but the row was spectacular. I think I'd have been scarred for life from the beating I received that day, even if there hadn't been plenty
more since. He then had that awful specimen Dyer, newly released from prison after serving his paltry sentence for murdering my uncle, lock me in this room…'

‘Dyer murdered your uncle?' said Cathie, horrified. ‘And now he's in your father's employ? No wonder he gives me the creeps!'

‘He gives you the creeps because he's a creep, Cathie.'

‘Going back to earlier, how come His Lordshit lets you speak to me alone? Doesn't he fear you'll tell me…?'

‘I'm under strict instructions not to tell you a thing, hence the stupid agoraphobia tale. Whatever happens, he must never know that I've opened up to you. Never! I think you realise just how dangerous His Lordshit is now, don't you?'

‘Trust me, Theo darling; I won't tell a soul; I know what would happen to you.' Cathie's fingers continued to trace the scars on Theo's back.

‘I'm more concerned about you, Cathie. Don't stop doing that to my back by the way; it feels lovely. He's a tyrant; he'll hurt anyone to achieve his own ends. He must think that I'm a selfish prat whose only interest is getting laid, and you're just a ditsy girl hopelessly in love with Lord Theo the cad. Can you do that?'

‘I can pretend that you're a cad; it'll take some doing as I know you're not, but I'll do it. I don't have to pretend to be hopelessly in love with you, Theo…'

Smiling, Theo kissed Cathie before they started talking again.

‘Despite …his…best efforts I do have friends, Cathie,' he said, and told her about Louis.

‘I don't know how I managed to make contact with him, but I did. Lying here alone day after day, going up to Applethwaite in my head, I eventually made contact with Louis. In my head. I know it sounds insane, and I can't do it
now. I think I could only do it then because there were no distractions…'

‘Louis?'

‘Yes, Louis Trevelyan. My best friend.'

Not leaving anything out, Theo told Cathie all about his friendship with Louis, their childhood pact, the strange contact he made with Louis from his prison, Louis coming to London to give Theo hope. Finally, Theo pulled the message from Louis out from his mattress and showed it to Cathie.

‘Who's Matilda?' asked Cathie when she'd read the note.

‘I don't know. Sorry, I forgot that bit,' replied Theo, laughing.

‘She sounds hot,' said Cathie, adding in her head: confident, exciting and far more suited to Theo than shy, nervous Catherine Lorimer.

‘She sounds desperate. You're my girlfriend now, Cathie. That is, if you want to be…'

‘Of course I do, Theo! I want that more than the world.'

‘Even after all I've told you? Even knowing how uncertain, and dangerous, my future might be?'

‘Even after all that, Theo. I love you; I'm sure you've guessed that by now? Whatever you face I want to be there too. My only worry is that you'll meet this Matilda; she'll be a hot goddess and I won't see you for dust…'

‘Cathie! I don't care if she's the best-looking girl on the planet to everyone else; she won't stop me wanting you. Not because of who your father is, not just because I want to get laid; I want you because…'

‘Really?' whispered Theo's conscience. Theo ignored it.

‘Because, well, I'm pretty sure I love you too,' he said.

Chapter Fourteen